The Wrath of the Righteous

So this journal entry is an accounting of traveling through the citadel itself. I’m losing what to say after fighting fighting and more fighting. What is there to say? We fight, the upper floor, we fight most of it at one time. When the fighting is over, we go to where the Banner used to be stored. Is the banner there? No. We move on, why? we’re rushed, we must have the banner before reinforcements arrive, so that the demons can not teleport in. We hurry on, we find a way down.

Then things change, Phanesia remembers being here, remembers being mistreated. We find a short, maybe that is a relative term, little area where people are/were jailed, and this sparks more from her. There is a secret passage somewhere and eventually we find it.

The secret passage is opened and we find a forge that is made to corrupt items of good. Wow it is hot, some of our members jump to the floor to engage in combat, and they are getting burned, I stay up top and do what I can. It’s good to Aveline back with us, helping to fight, still a little unsure of herself, but she does well.

We move on and encounter a dragon, not in dragon form, and we run, Phanesia tells us to and she holds it off long enough for us to get away and continue onward.

Finally we find the banner, and the creature guarding it, who is a mythic demon on some kind. She attacks everyone slowing them down, but me. Well she attacks me and slows me a little bit I manage to grab the banner, use some of my won mythic energy and display the banner. With that the fight ends, the army arrives. And we are out, maybe a couple days of not fighting?

Entering the City

Today we march into the city proper. As soon as we do we have several problems that need solved. We have to clear the southside, that’s a job for the army, which other than being successful but taking three days there is not much to report, at least it is a place to staff our troops. We find some prisoners and refugees, whom we augment our forces and losses with. Eventually over the course of the week we take the whole south side and just leave a small enemy force on the hill. We’ll get back to that. Let’s cover what we got called to do.

We go to a cemetery that even the demons don’t want to be a part of. We find out that things from the cemetery eat demons or anything, so that from time to time they allow prisoners and less savory people to the enemy army to walk in the area, so that they can get taken rather than anyone of importance.

We find this one giant mausoleum and that’s what everyone is afraid of. So we approach, and inside we find like some giant special ghoul or some type of undead, that has special powers. Which includes fear. I ran, not for long, but I ran, however Poor Donal Ran, and ran, and ran. Maybe the realm he comes from, if that is truly what happened to him, the court is still out on that, maybe they have nothing so horrible. In that sense it would be nice to think that there is a world where the horrors aren’t so, well, horrible. We manage to fight the thing and defeat it, then the crypt needed consecrated, and we could go about or business. When we get back, we rest, we check on the troops that are still capturing the south side which I wrote about above, and we have a new task for the next day.

The need to capture the only bridge to the main castle where the banner is likely to be kept. The problem: 4 demonic bulls that are tied to some chains to pull the supports down and crash the only bridge, preventing our troops from assaulting the citadel. We come up with a plan and are going to attack all 4 bulls at once. We have it worked out, and then Donal decides he needs to go with me. What does he need to go with me for? I don’t really know him from a hole in the wall, other than he appeared in Ravenloft and somehow came back with us. He tried to come with me and split Phanesia and I up. Eventually our original plan stuck and we make the attack. The bulls dead, we deal with the troops above on the bridge, and eventually we defeat those too. I had a charming little fly, attracting everyone’s attention, and then ducking back under the bridge, leaving the enemy distracted and our friendlies being able to attack much easier. The whole group did a good job. We regroup and figure out our next plan.

Well out next plan is for the army to spirit us to the citiadel and get us inside to find the banner! I’ll end this entry at them spiriting us inside and retreating.

musings & scribbles of a shield dwarf

Well, I guess effort will have to do, when talent won’t.

I’m not really one to think too hard on why stuff matters to me. Thing is, if I’m causing others to jump into the breach with me, I’d better figure it out at some point. Perhaps I can afford to come to some grief, but I cannot ask others to hurt for me. They may be willing to, but they aren’t all like me. Would they want to be? I doubt it, so let’s not go there.

Gods, this philosophical stuff isn’t easy. Beginnings, first.

Ok, things that matter.

I fight to protect those of greater worth to society. Anyone can learn to hit hard and take it on the chin, but it takes a richer mind to preserve the lore of a people.
ii. The lorekeepers are guardians of what matters, as I am a guardian of the keepers. The lore is what makes us great – it inspires us in need, and it make us aim high for the glory of yesteryear, and the new ideas of tomorrow.
iii. Whether carved in stone, told on a stage or played on a harp, the method isn’t as important as the tale and the heart behind it. Still, there’s never going to be a guardian for every tale-spinner and songster, so we need to record the lore. Training our mind to remember these things is important, too. Guess that’s why I’ll be doing the guarding with steel.
iv. We all have our own way of inspiring, and our own tales to tell for future generations. Dwarf or Elf, we are not equal but we are equally worthy, as long as we aim to keep and love. I figure that, end of the day, the Gods care for us doing things the right way, for the right reasons – not whether we speak in Cormanthian rhyme or write in Dethek runes. Does this mean that the Gods that only listen to one race are odd? I guess so. Not what I grew up believing. I’ll have to think about this.

Hmm, dawn is getting closer. I’ll get back to this another day, but for now I need to get the kettle on the fire and the tent packed away. It’s going to be a day of blood and guts. Let’s hope we’ll be there to remember it, when the sun sets again.

Drezen Approach

We approach Drezen, and things are going well, we are going to take our little army into the city proper except that we get stopped, by bugs, tons and tons of little demonic bugs. Little things called Vescavors. Well from what we know, alone they are not so bad when they get into big groups like this, there is a queen or something controlling them. Their home would be a cave or something close, so we scout out the area and find the likely location.

We insert into their home, through a hole in the top of a cave, but we have to find where the queen lives. We find a couple of swarms and defeat them and/or run. Ducky, well Ducky is not the quietest person in the world, eventually he is so loud he runs for the end of the cave, leading us to the Queen. This is both good and bad. He runs the swarms around, while the rest of us fight. Volgrim is a beast, and does a great job. The queen dead, we spend the rest of the day waiting around for the swarms to slowly disperse, they would have eaten us alive, instead they disperse and we can continue on the next day.

Sorry this was so short diary, but there really is not a lot to say about what needed done this day.

Back to Drezen

So we appear back at the temple. The great evil under the temple is gone. The temple needs consecrated and our Paladin decides to remain behind and help with this, as well as a few priests, but tells us to set off and make our way to Drezen which is still about 3 days out. They should catch up about the time we reach Drezen, so we go on with all our troops, but just a group of 4 leading the charge if Volgrim performs this task.

We journey for day 1 and 2, and there is no problems. Day three, we start to see some enemy flyers and such, that we shoot down or take care of, but at this point we are probably spotted. Then we move forward and we see bugs. Bugs, who cares right? Vescavor. There are some abyssal bugs that are somehow here. There not demons, they just come from the abyss. Well there are a million of them. And one by one they are not a big deal, but they are merged into swarms, time little crawly swarms that you can’t even attack with a weapon, not much more than a spell. Well from what I know if they come like that, a queen is not normally far away. She likes a cave or something underground. So we send out scouts that find where she is probably at.

They find her location, and Ducky, Donal, and NIera as well as myself head down into the cave. All starts well, except Ducky wore his armor. He can’t be quiet for anything, and he attracts a pack of the Vescavor. I color sprayed them, and thought they should have been taken care of longer, but they start moving again. His name noise winds up getting them attracted to me. Me! I move away and I go invisible. The bugs start following the rest of the group, but I take a different passage, with invis and not wearing armor I can be, quite, quiet. I meet back up with the group who is worried about finding me, and I whisper more with the forward less with the retreating.

Ducky manages to attract like 42 packs of the bugs, and he runs at full speed. The Bugs follow him, some dropping off as he moves at full speed, but he takes 2 packs into… The queens lair. We find the queen, and these things eat our clothing and non magical gear, leaving me and Donal fighting in naked form. I haste the group, and we approach the queen, and Donal does good damage, and Niera summons some wolves which I make move fast as well. Ducky kites the packs, and keeps them busy until we finish the queen, the summoned wolves feasting upon her body.

We’re done right? No there is a gate to the abyss. Must be where the Vescavor queen came through. We go down and see a a claw coming through the gate. Ducky prevents the creature from coming through but we need a more permanent solution. Not being powerful enough to seal a gate yet, I send the Ducky away and tell them to get out. I put some lightning at a weak spot in the ceiling and have it come crashing down, then I run and FLY to get out of the cavernous area.

Problem solved, we want for the creatures to disperse, they are no longer swarms, but we send out the troops to stomp, smash, and quell the enemy numbers, and tomorrow we march on Drezen!

The freeing of Barovia

So we continue journeying through the castle, eventually climbing a tower to the top. While at the top we get assaulted by massive amounts of undead climbing the tower. We slay so many, until they form into a giant blob of body parts. Now that was a little a little bit of a tough fight. We head back down after we learn it is a dead end, and we decide that down might be our best place to go.

Down and down with a pit stop in the consecrated area. Down and down we go into the basement. Thank Mystra for Darkvision. Because the ceiling is covered with thousands of sleeping bats, that and a crypt with like 50 plus mausoleums. We start investigating, reading them as we are able. We’re not really wanting to disturb anything down here.

Strahd appears and says are you going to give me what I want. We still say no, and a battle ensues. Well our paladin smites the foe, and he turns gaseous and wisps away. Now we have a sense of urgency, we must find him while we can. We move through the area, and we find the burial sits of Strahd and his long dead brother. Strahd is in his coffin and we stake him and kill him, as best as we know how. We go to Sergei’s crypt and he awakens and says he will take care of the item his brother wanted and that it can not be destroyed. He will safe keep it.

We go outside and the castle is destroyed and the darkness is lifted. We return Duncan’s daughter to him, and then we find ourselves back in the temple with a new person Donal. He was not returned to whence he came from, and he is going to journey on with us. But more about that in the next entry, where we continue on to Drezen and meet abyssal bugs!

Castle Ravenloft

We awaken and head to the Castle, which is mostly an uneventful Journey. We have a carriage without a rider come to pick us up. There is a debate about whether or not it is ok. But we all get in, and are dropped off at the gate. We enter the castle, and the doors are unlocked that lead us to a dining room, and we meet Strahd, He is a vampire, and he wants something from us, some item. I have no clue what he is talking about. Eventually I learned that Donal had the item in question, but I had no idea.

We eat dinner, and we are offered to spend the night without anything bad happening, we can decide in the morning if we are going to give him the item he wants. We purify the food just in case, but we eat to our hearts content.

In the morning the door is unlocked and we begin to explore the castle. We find a chapel which doesn’t have the taint of the rest of the place, and we find a holy symbol consecrated to good. We take the holy symbol and we move onward. We search more of the castle, we find is accountant, whom the group tries to free. I could tell he didn’t want to go, and I didn’t feel that we were best served having someone with us that didn’t want to be with us in the castle of a vampire. He eventually pulls some rope, and possible a bride of Strahd shows up who goes running. With some clues we find the treasury of Ravenloft, and we loot what we find, for myself, a coin that acts like a stone of good luck.

Sorry there really is not more to say diary, but if was a boring walk through a castle, painstakingly slow to make sure nothing bad would happen to us.

Arrival in Baraovia

So we pull up the altar and bam, we appear somewhere else.

We are in some kind of a temple, with darkness and a priest that is praying. We wander forward and speak to the man, and he says that his prayers have been answered. We are here to stop the undead. What? What undead? He says get ready they will be coming for the door shortly.

So we prepare for an assault. And shortly thereafter the beating comes on the barred double doors of the church we are in. The priest, a man named Duncan says he needs to pray which will help us. We throw open the bars, my idea, rather than having the barring break, and we meet the assault head on. It was an assault, but it was a assault by menial death. I mean that there were skeletons and bats and things, but nothing that there was really worth for me to cast a spell on. I threw out some globs of acid, and we fought and we fought until there were no more.

At the end Duncan talked to us and told us that he wants us to find his daughter, that the guardian of the realm, a Strahd Von Zarovich has taken her, and taken a liking to her. We agree to set off in this realm, where even in the day it is dark. He advises us that we might want to stop in and speak with the gypsies that travel the area, that they are the only people who can cross the border of the realm, and that they have some agreement with this Strahd.

We set off being told that we can make it by the end of the day, if we leave now, and that the creatures come out at night. We travel uneventfully and we do find the gypsy camp, and are invited in to spend the night. We asks questions, and we don’t get much more than we already learned from Duncan. Strahd did used to have a brother, and a wife, but she killed herself. Other than that we camp and get ready for the journey to the castle tomorrow.

March across the Kingdom

So Queen Galfray tells us our next move is to set off across the realm. Why you ask. We have to go find some old artifact that will bring back the will of the people. We say our goodbyes, and yet some people come along that surprise us. Phanesa comes along. As does Horgus and Lann. The queen gives us 100 paladins to go with us as well. So with Lann, Phanesa the paladins and the group we set off.

We travel for a day, gathering food from animals along the way, with our pack train in tow. We travel uneventfully for a while, trying to keep an eye on Phanesa, not sure of her intentions at this point. After a 2 days we are attacked by minions of the demons, small hordes of the inferior types. Poor Aveline as usual winds up standing in the wrong spot. We lose 2 of the paladins through this massive battles, but we slay 100’s of demons in return. And Phanesa’s brother shows up to fight against us, she ducks and hides and doesn’t want him to see her, but she fights well and true during the encounter.

We travel on for another day, and we find an old dwarven temple. We send Lann on ahead with his Mongrelman because they can act as scouts. This is one of the places we are looking for, and we proceed, after Lann comes running back, and finding out one of our, and his have been captured. So we set off as fast as we can.

We approach and find this temple half ruined, and poor Aveline, her life wouldn’t be the same without being in the wrong spot. We get into another large scuffle, with more demons and gargoyles, and this goes ok, except for when we get to the main part. well Lann’s countryman has had a ritual done, and we can not save him. There is nothing to be done.

Finally we detect a great evil coming under the altar. A few in the group feel the need to move the altar. We’ll we wake up and we’re not in Kansas anymore. But that part of the story I’ll save for another chapter in my journal.

Jenna OOC Notes. This was 2 sessions of adventuring, but there was nothing great or extremely funny or worth nothing, so it was time to put a log down to catch up.

The Grey Garrison

So we’re told to take on the Grey Garrison next. Having taken out the outside defenses in my previous journal, we are to set off on this task, made harder by the fact that Sergio went on a midnight raid and is now missing in action. Really for the first floor there is not much to say, there were a couple of tieflings or creatures that were corrupted by the Worldwound. It was easy and we proceeded without much effort. We did find a desecrated temple to make whole, and a hidden cash of weapons that had not been found even when the enemy took the building over. But the second floor was where the problems began.

We climb the stairs and begin to move in when the whole second floor comes to life at once. The worst being this alchemist who keeps throwing bombs. Poor Aveline is at the wrong spot again and keeps having to deal with concoction after concoction thrown her way. There are giant flies, Peryton and some other creatures coming our way. Aveline shuts the door holding the alchemist in check, while I stunned and blocked most of the western part of the second floor. This allowed the others to slowly start mopping up the creatures that were there. By the time the Alchemist and his guard could get the door open from Aveline a lot of the enemy was gone, although Aveline, I must note learned not to set a creature on fire that had its horns impaled upon her.

We proceed up to the third floor where the fragment of the wardstone is, and they want to perform some ritual to corrupt it. As we head up the steps we can feel the power of the wardstone and it infuses us as if it was a brand new day, fresh spells, and all that good stuff. Inside we meet an evil oracle named Jeslyn guarding this fragment. It’s not so bad well until she dies and Babau’s start appearing, This is a super hard fight for our group, but we eventually destroy the wardstone fragment as we were instructed to do. We find out later this causes many things to happen, and we “see” the wardstones life. What happens is the destruction of this fragment forced all the wardstones on the border to pulse with light, and their effects came back in force. Thousands upon thousands of demons are destroyed. But finishing off this wardstone made all the others ultimately fail. However had we not succeeded, and the wardstone would have been corrupted, instead of demons dying, it would have been Crusaders dying.

We receive a vision of the first wardstone being erected in the Kite here in Silverymoon in a ritual involving the aid of the Hand of the Inheritor-the herald of Iomedae : a golden, winged angel with a halo of small swords around his head. This event happens soon after the Second Crusade begins.

Then we see a vision of a 20-year-old Hulrun leading the burning of dozens of supposed " witches" in the courtyard of the Kite before the wardstone. This event launches the Second Crusade.

Then we see a vision of Khorramzadeh the Storm King leading a brazen attack on Kenabres. The Storm King manages to strike a resounding blow with his sword against the wardstone, which suffers only the tiniest of cracks as the balor’s sword shatters. Khorramzadeh is then attacked and forced to flee when the silver dragon Terendelev nearly kills him-this event launches the Fourth Crusade.

Then we see a vision of Irabeth chasing a burly dwarven man- Staunton Vhane (leader of the Hammers of Heaven mercenary group) into the courtyard containing the wardstone. Both paladins are heavily wounded, and as Staunton backs against the wardstone, smoke rises and he screams in pain. He ducks to avoid one of Irabeth’s blows, then manages to smash her knee with his hammer, dropping her to the ground. Staunton seems ready to deliver a death blow, but the sound of approaching soldiers forces him instead to back away and summon a fiendish giant wasp that he swiftly mounts and then flies away to the north, abandoning Silverymoon

We see a vision of Minagho, a beautiful demonic woman with a long thin tail, clawed hands, and curling horns protruding from where her eyes should be,
placing the wardstone fragment in this room and of Jeslyn using a wish granted by Minagho to create the cage around it before Minagho teleports away.

Now we see a vision of an event we know will now never happen-Areelu Vorlesh using a deep purple Nahyndrian crystal the size of a human’s head to corrupt the fragment, causing the entire border to flash with nauseating mauve fire that devastates the border cities and transforms countless crusaders into half-fiend slaves of the Worldwound. We realize at this point that the demons’ entire plan was to draw as many crusaders to the border to defend it from their attacks, in order to maximize the damage this event would have caused.

This is the moment the Babau’s attacked and tried to exact revenge. It was also the moment that we were infected, perhaps not the proper word, but infected with extraordinary abilities, that some would call mythic.